Heretofore, alumina-SiC composite materials and the like have been developed as materials for cutting inserts, such as throwaway tips (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Also, there have been proposed a method for using SiC whisker (see Patent Document 3) and a microparticulation technique by third phase addition (addition of TiB2) (see Patent Document 4), in order to achieve high strength and high toughness of alumina-SiC composite materials.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-80708
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2511696
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2507479
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2979703
Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-104069
Patent Document 6: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-012670